


With Honor

by lil_1337



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen, alternative universe, disturbing images
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-13
Updated: 2006-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-06 22:00:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/423736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_1337/pseuds/lil_1337
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for GW500's summer challenge – 'What if'</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Honor

I do not expect to survive this battle. This is the end of the war, the fight that I promised Nataku I would finish for her. She died in my arms, defending our colony, because of Treize Khushrenada and OZ. I will not allow them to advance any further. The colonies must be protected at all cost. This is not the first time I have faced him, the man who, in his arrogance, dishonored me by refusing to take my life when I lost to him.

He doesn't remember my name, another dishonor for which he will pay. This time we duel not with bare steel, but with Gundams. The spirit of Nataku will make me powerful so that I can defeat him. I have worked since we last met. Made myself strong in mind and in body. This is the moment in which all will be decided so she can be free.

We battle, metal against metal, energy weapons blazing arcs in the nothingness of space. He is a great warrior, but I have righteousness on my side. Those who are right must be strong. They must wear their convictions as they wear their armor. If I battle for what I believe then there is no dishonor in death. Fighting a weak enemy leaves me empty, but fighting one who seeks to destroy what principles I stand for, fills me with the fire of the dragon clan.

The dragon claw is less responsive now. I'm sure a vital system has been damaged, but as long as I can move I can fight. I will end his life and with that take the reason for this war. The soldiers who follow him do so only for their own glory. They know nothing of the colonies and their struggles to survive. I do. I am of the colonies. A man alone sent to defend his home from the aggressors who seek to destroy it.

I pause for a moment, remembering. So many things destroyed. So many lives lost. Meilan, lying broken in my arms, strong even as she draws her last breath. Elder Long, my master, preferring to die by his own hand in his own way, instead of bending to the will of another. My colony, hanging suspended in space, bursts of red and orange fire billowing out, as it was indeed inhabited by the dragons of myth.

So many reasons to fight. To win.

So few to survive.

His Gundam is moving slower now too. The last strike with my sword, piercing the middle section where his cockpit resides. There are trails of electricity crackling across the surface of his machine. I know mine is the same. I can see them in the way my monitors spark then fade in and out. The radio is gone. I can hear only static and the ringing that fills my ears. There should be pain. My injuries are mortal. There can be no doubt of that, and yet there is no pain. Just a pressure on my chest, baring me down, pulling me under, even as I struggle to end this fight.

That's it. The final strike.

His Gundam glows, white-hot light emanates from its core then spreads out to envelope it in an almost mystical light. Then the explosion. I can't hear it but the force sends me flying, knocking me off my feet. It's done. Nataku and my clan have been avenged. The colonies are freed.

It's growing dark. Not the chill emptiness of space, but the warm place within that I find when I meditate. My time has come and gone. I will no longer be needed. Before me I see Meilan and Master Long, smiling and welcoming me. She reaches out her hand, but I shake my head. Insisting first that she accept me as her husband in death as she never did in life. She tosses her hair, laughing, before saying the words I need to hear.

/I accept you, husband./

To be worthy.

To find peace.

These are all the things I ever desired and now I have them. I can go.

And I do.


End file.
